After nearly two weeks of political paralysis, South Korea’s National Assembly ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol on Saturday in a second instance. Last week, most parliamentarians from Yoon’s own party left the meeting room to prevent a valid vote from taking place. Now the 108 representatives of the People Power Party took part in the vote on an opposition motion to remove Yoon from office after his failed coup earlier this month.
Sufficient representatives of the divided party supported a motion urging Yoon’s departure: a total of 204 representatives voted in favor, sufficient for the required two-thirds majority in the three-hundred-seat parliament. The Supreme Court must now confirm this, and in the meantime Yoon has been suspended.
Party leader Han Dong-hoon, who changed course a few times in recent days, had said on Thursday that as far as he was concerned the president should be forced to leave. He said that party members should vote “according to their own conscience.” Before the vote, seven PPP members had already announced that they supported Yoon’s ouster, just one short of the required eight.
‘Pro-North Korean forces’
The impeachment follows the short-lived military emergency that Yoon unexpectedly declared on the evening of Tuesday, December 3. He then said in a televised speech that the country was threatened by “anti-state and pro-North Korean forces” in the National Assembly.
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Conservative Yoon was elected president in 2022 by a razor-thin margin, but never had a majority in parliament. In the parliamentary elections in April, the opposition even increased its majority. Partly because of this, Yoon failed to implement much meaningful policy. Moreover, the opposition targeted him for a series of scandals in which he and his entourage are embroiled – such as an affair involving his wife, who allegedly accepted an expensive handbag and was involved in the manipulation of stock prices.
As part of his ‘self-coup’, Yoon banned all political activities, including that of parliament. According to the South Korean constitution, the latter is not allowed: the parliament has the power to reverse the state of emergency with a majority vote. Although Yoon deployed the army and police to block the Assembly and prevent a meeting, 190 MPs found their way to the chamber and unanimously voted to lift the state of emergency, after which the army withdrew. Many thousands of demonstrators had now gathered outside the parliament building.
It soon became apparent that Yoon and a few loyalists had also raided the National Election Commission that evening – where he wanted to investigate popular rumors about ‘election fraud’ among right-wing conspiracy theorists – and at least one popular left-wing journalist and YouTuber. He also planned to have more than a dozen political opponents arrested, including opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and his own party leader Han Dong-hoon, with whom he is regularly at odds.
Since then, there have been massive protests in South Korea calling for the president’s impeachment and arrest. According to an opinion poll published on Friday, he only has the support of 11 percent of the population.
‘Second coup’
Yet an earlier attempt to remove Yoon from office failed last Saturday in the three-hundred-seat parliament. Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority, which the opposition itself does not have. Of the 108 PPP members, at least eight should have voted with Yoon’s opponents. But all but three left the room before the vote, meaning no legally valid decision could be made.
A day later it became clear why: party leader Han Dong-hoon, who had previously urged Yoon’s departure, had agreed with the president that he would resign “in due course”. Until then, Yoon would no longer interfere in state affairs and transfer his duties to Prime Minister and party colleague Han Duck-soo.
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The opposition saw this private transfer of power, the legal basis for which remained unclear, as “a second coup.” Criticism increased further when the Ministry of Defense announced that Yoon, who had now been identified by the judiciary as a suspect in an investigation into ‘sedition’ and was not allowed to leave South Korea, was still legally commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It also turned out that Yoon was still involved in national government. For example, he nominated a new judge for the Supreme Court on Friday.
On Thursday, Yoon gave a lengthy televised speech in which he defended his actions, lashed out at the opposition and said he would not resign. The speech may have been fatal: a short time later, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, for whom the speech came “as a surprise”, dropped it.
Supreme Court
Now that the National Assembly has approved the impeachment of President Yoon, he has been suspended, but not yet officially deposed. Now the Supreme Court must uphold Yoon’s ouster, after which new elections will take place within 60 days. In the meantime, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is acting president.
Yoon seems to be betting that his deposition will fail in court. That chance certainly exists: six judges must agree to Yoon’s impeachment. The court officially has nine judges, but three seats on the court are currently vacant. The court would therefore have to unanimously agree to his removal. The terms of another two judges officially expire in April, while the impeachment proceedings could last up to six months.
Moreover, the court can only hear the case if there is a quorum of at least seven judges. There is therefore a chance that a political fight will erupt over the appointment of new judges.
Han Duck-soo also investigates
And that is not the only reason that Yoon’s departure will not immediately end the political paralysis that has gripped South Korea in recent weeks. Many ministers and senior military and police officials have resigned, been forced to resign or have been investigated for their role in the events of December 3 in the past week. The role of the new acting President Han Duck-soo in the coup is also being investigated.
It did little to dampen the joy on the streets of Seoul, where thousands of people gathered at the National Assembly to await the outcome of the vote. Protesters had also gathered in other cities across the country. In the southern city of Gwangju, the scene of a bloody suppressed uprising against the then military regime in 1980, thousands of people took part in a march through the city along the same route that demonstrators had followed at the time.